Measurement of the W -boson production cross sections in p p collisions at s = 13 TeV in the forward region

Journal article

A precision measurement of the $W$ -boson production cross section is performed using the $W\to \mu \nu$ decay channel, based on a sample of proton-proton collision data collected by the LHCb experiment at $\sqrt{s}=13\mathrm{TeV}$ and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $5.1{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ . The cross section is measured for muons with transverse momentum between 25 and 55 GeV and pseudorapidity between 2.0 and 4.5. The total production cross sections of $W$ bosons are measured to be ${\sigma }_{W^{+}\to {\mu }^{+}\nu }=1754.2\pm 1.5\pm 11.8\pm 35.1\mathrm{pb}$ ${\sigma }_{W^{-}\to {\mu }^{-}\overline{\nu }}=1178.1\pm 1.3\pm 9.7\pm 23.6\mathrm{pb}$ where uncertainties are statistical, systematic, and due to the luminosity determination, respectively. Differential distributions $\mathrm{d}{\sigma }_{W^{\pm }\to {\mu }^{\pm }\nu }/\mathrm{d}{\eta }^{{\mu }^{\pm }}$ are also presented. The total and differential cross sections are in good agreement with theoretical predictions at next-to-next-to-leading order in perturbative quantum chromodynamics. This measurement is significantly more precise than previous results in this kinematic regime.

Authors: Aaij, R; Abdelfatah, M; Abdelmotteleb, ASW; Beteta, CA; Abudinén, F

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Journal: Physical Review D (particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology) More from this journal
• Volume: 114
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 052003
• Publication date: 2026-06-16
• DOI: 10.1103/5wwg-frcg
• EISSN: 2470-0029
• ISSN: 2470-0010
• Language: English
• Keywords: W boson production; differential cross section; 13 TeV; forward region; proton-proton collisions; W boson cross section; NNLO QCD predictions; LHCb; pseudorapidity dependence